Ex-COAS gives colleague, media houses retraction deadline
Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai (rtd), has slammed a N1 billion defamation suit against another erstwhile military officer, Maj.-Gen. Danjuma Hamisu Ali-Keffi, before the Kaduna State High Court.
The case, filed on January 8 at the Kaduna Judicial Division of the High Court, accused Ali-Keffi of making and circulating alleged false, malicious and defamatory statements linking Buratai to terrorism financing, Boko Haram suspects, and illegal release and concealment of terror suspects.
Buratai, through his counsel, A.I. Aliyu and A.M. Hassan of Law Plus Consult, is seeking declarations that the statements credited to the defendant and published on several online media platforms were defamatory and injurious to his reputation.
The plaintiff contended that the defendant granted interviews last year in which he allegedly insinuated that he had links to terror suspects and financiers, and that he was involved in conspiracies to cover up terrorism-related activities during his tenure as Chief of Army Staff (COAS).
In his statement of claim, Buratai described the allegations as entirely false, stressing that he has never been investigated, indicted or convicted for terrorism, terrorism financing or any related offence. No date has been fixed for the commencement of the hearing, and the defendant has not filed a response to the suit.
THIS is even as an ex-COAS, Lt.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya (rtd), has given Keffi, management of Arise News and Sahara Reporters, a 72-hour ultimatum to withdraw allegations of terrorism financing against him or face legal action.
Yahaya, through his legal team, led by Mohammed Ndayako (SAN), served the formal demand notices on the trio over the contents of “defamatory interviews, reports, and publications widely circulated in recent days.”
The former Army chief said the move is necessary to clear his name and defend his integrity following the circulation of the “false and malicious allegations linking him to alleged terrorism financiers.”
In a statement on Wednesday by a former spokesman of the Army, Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman, Yahaya claimed Ali-Keffi named him as one of the alleged terrorism financiers during the interview with Arise News and was further amplified by Sahara Reporters.
